In the news: MBC Groups’s investment in Wego, Cathay Pacific’s partnership with Alibaba Group, SIA’s creative inflight safety video unveiled
ONLINE TRAVEL: MBC Group, Middle East’s leading multimedia company, invests in Wego
Deal done with a smile and a handshake – Wego’s Ross Veitch (right) and MBC’s Fadel Zahreddine
Last week travel search site Wego announced it has received a “significant amount” in investment from MBC Group (Middle East Broadcasting Centre) to accelerate its growth across the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA).
Both parties did not disclose the deal’s financial terms. However, a check with Crunchbase listed this latest funding round, Series E, as US$12 million. This bring Wego’s total equity funding to US$57.5 million in five rounds from five investors.
Wego, founded in Singapore in 2005, raised its Series A funding in 2008 with US$4.5 million from News Corp. Its other investors are Crescent Point Group, Tiger Global Management and SquarePeg Capital.
MBC, described as ‘MENA’s largest and leading multimedia company’, was launched in 1991 in London as the first private free-to-air Arab satellite TV channel. It moved its headquarters to Dubai Media City in 2002. Today, the group includes 20 TV channels and two FM radio stations, broadcasting to millions across MENA and beyond through various media platforms.
MBC said the partnership would see the promotion of Wego’s app and website across its channels and other platforms throughout the year.
Commenting on the deal Ross Veitch, CEO & co-founder of Wego, said: “As we incorporate more video based editorial content and product merchandising to Wego’s online travel marketplace there is obvious crossover potential between MBC’s programming and Wego’s online services,”
Fadel Zahreddine, group director of brand management – marketing, branding, digital businesses at MBC, added that applying its brand amplification platforms to Wego’s product offering would benefit both brands and travellers.
TRAVEL: Cathay Pacific partners with Alibaba to tap the Chinese outbound travel market
Cathay Pacific joins hands with Alibaba to target Chinese travellers (Image credit: Urupong/iStock)
The Chinese travel market is so huge, with an estimated 700 million Chinese outbound trips expected in the next five years, that many foreign companies are forming partnership to tap it. Last year spending by Chinese travellers totalled US$261 billion.
It is thus no surprise that the Alibaba Group is a preferred partner, as it has a wide reach to Chinese consumers with over 507 million active mobile users. Just this week Marriott International formed a joint venture with this Chinese e-commerce giant to target Chinese outbound travellers.
The latest company to collaborate with Alibaba is Hong Kong-based carrier Cathay Pacific. It has entered a strategic cooperation with Alibaba and Ant Financial, affiliate company of Alibaba, to explore initiatives to capture the enormous potential of outbound travel among Chinese consumers, and to enhance the overall customer experience.
The link-up connects the airline with three key businesses within Alibaba’s ecosystem – travel services, cloud computing and payments.
Alibaba’s travel services platform, Fliggy, will allow Cathay Pacific’s passengers to customise their journeys.
Alibaba Cloud, the cloud computing arm of Alibaba, will support Cathay Pacific with its cloud computing services, powered by its data centres and global network resources in 14 regions.
Alipay, an online and mobile payment platform operated by Ant Financial, will work with Cathay Pacific to explore payment service options at different touch points along the passenger journey.
The two companies plan to seek other collaboration opportunities to promote global travel among Chinese consumers through Cathay Pacific’s flagship store on the (Fliggy) platform.
AIRLINES: SIA’s new safety video takes its customers on a walk through Singapore
The Singapore Girl, Elizabeth Quek, is your guide in SIA’s safety video
Airlines are competing with one another to put out the most attention-grabbing inflight safety videos enlisting A-list actors, TV personalities etc to highlight their country’s tourism assets.
Singapore Airlines is the latest to join the bandwagon with its new safety video to show off Singapore’s iconic landmarks, taking viewers on a panoramic journey across various locations beyond the traditional space of the aircraft cabin.
You follow the Singapore Girl, crew member Elizabeth Quek, as she travels to iconic landmarks such as Boat Quay, The Intan Peranakan Home Museum, River Safari, Haji Lane, Adventure Cove Waterpark, Henderson Waves, Capitol Theatre and Gardens by the Bay.
At each location she meets diverse characters engaged in different activities that creatively demonstrate the safety instructions.
The safety video, which will be screened on SIA flights from the end of the year, is a result of a bilateral agreement signed between SIA and Singapore Tourism Board (STB) in June. The partnership aims to jointly promote inbound travel to and through Singapore, and showcasing the city state to a global audience.
SIA and STB will also jointly invest a combined SG$10 million over three years to collaborate on marketing activities, event promotion campaigns and technology initiatives.
“Our new safety video provides a more captivating way of effectively presenting safety information to our customers as compared to the more conventional approach that we have taken up to now,” said Campbell Wilson, SIA senior vice president sales and marketing.
We are sure this clever video will capture the attention of SIA passengers. Here’s the preview.
